6th December 1981

[erimus74]

The Sunday morning after we beat, soon to be league champions, Aston Villa 2-1 in a snow blizzard 2nd half at Ayresome Park with goals from Craig Johnston & David Shearer
I was still buzzing when I picked up the Sunday morning papers our dad had bought & didn't understand the back headlines quoted from John Neal, "I wish I could keep this team together"
I said to our dad, whats all this about, history told us what John Neal was talking about as months later after getting dumped out of the FAC QF at Wolves, our young, exciting team were getting picked off by the big guns, Armstrong, Proctor, Johnston & replaced with, at best, mediocre players, once the season finished John Neal handed in his resignation, obviously he'd had enough, seen the ambition the board had for £££££££'s so decided he couldn't fight them anymore & off he went

John Neals exciting team

Jim Platt
John Craggs
Ian Bailey
Craig Johnston
Billy Ashcroft
Irving Nattrass
Terry Cochrane
Mark Proctor
David Hodgson
David Shearer
David Armstrong

Attendance  - 15,721


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[TerryCochranesSocks]

I was at that match with my dad in the North stand, it was bitter in the second half.

When I watch that footage I can't help but notice that most players were in short sleeved shirts, no-one wearing gloves, no socks pulled up to the thighs (I fucking hate that, they'll be wearing suspenders next!!) and all the boots are black.
It was better then.

[John Trebor]

We were awesome at home that season.
(It was 6 Dec 1980 btw 😉)

[TerryCochranesSocks]

The last season before it all started to go tits up.